Criteria for 'Red List' of Endangered Ecosystems Released

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With many of the world's ecosystems threatened or endangered by
human activities like logging and urbanization, the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published its criteria
for a new "Red List" of endangered ecosystems today (May 8) in
the journal PLOS ONE.

The list, which measures an ecosystem's risk of collapse, will be
similar to the group's authoritative
Red List of Endangered Species, which created internationally
accepted criteria for assessing extinction risk.

"The Red Lists for species and ecosystems will together provide a
more comprehensive view of the status of the environment and its
biodiversity than either can on its own," said lead study author
David Keith, a professor at the University of New South Wales in
Australia.

"The
Ecosystem Red List focuses on a high level of biodiversity,
the habitats for species, as well as their interactions and
dependencies, including food webs,” Keith told OurAmazingPlanet
in an email interview. “These are difficult or impossible to
address in Red List assessments of individual species, but very
important for the functioning of ecosystems and the services that
they provide to support our standards of living."

Through 20 case studies, Keith and an international team of
biologists and conservationists designed criteria that could
assess the health of all of Earth's varied ecosystems,
from spring-fed limestone caves to sparkling coral reefs.

"This is really a unifying framework," said study co-author
Richard Kingsford, also a professor at the University of New
South Wales. "The most important thing here, from my point of
view, is providing evidence that pushes governments to do things
to protect these magnificent parts of the world."

Of the ecosystems examined in the case studies, the most
endangered site was the
Aral Sea. Drained by a massive irrigation project and further
devastated by drought and pollution, the inland sea's ecosystem
has collapsed — the equivalent of species extinction, the study
concludes.The rest of the ecosystem threat categories mirror
those for species: critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable
and least concern.

North American ecosystems appearing in the case studies included
Alaska's giant kelp forests; the Great Lakes' rare Alvar beaches,
a legacy of glaciers grinding across the landscape; and Caribbean
coral reefs.

The IUCN group that developed the Red List of Ecosystems criteria
plans to formally propose the framework to IUCN leadership this
year. Funding is in place for listing ecosystems in the Americas,
and the organization hopes to have a global list in place by
2025.

Development of ecosystem and species
Green Lists are also underway — the carrot to the Red Lists'
stick — to help the IUCN promote conservation by rewarding
successes.

Here are the 20 case studies published today, from most to least
endangered, with the ecosystem type noted if available.